Volcano boarding in Leon, Nicaragua

From Granada we headed north to Leon to try our hand at volcano boarding. I’m not going to lie, I’m scared of heights and I’m also scared of siding down steep rocky hills at high speeds. Hence needless to say I was a little apprehensive about volcano boarding, especially considering the record speed is 95km/h…. That’s bloody quick!
We stayed at Bigfoot hostel and had a couple cheeky bevies on the first night, after all Tash was leaving the next day. Tash proclaimed that she was going to be the fastest girl of the day tomorrow, and as I was planning on digging in my heels the whole time I was happy to leave her unchallenged. After some dinner and a couple more bevies we retired to bed. It was still pretty early, but we wanted to get some rest for the next days activity. 

The next day we boarded a bus with 40 odd other travellers and headed for Cerro Negro, the volcano we were about to throw ourselves down. 

After an hour or so on the bus with several cow on road detours, we arrived at the volcano visitor centre. Here we lined up and paid our entrance fees before heading up the volcano. The day trip was led by Heath, an Aussie guy working at Bigfoot. He really made the day by giving us heaps of quality information on the volcano, previous records, and even a story of a guy who road down the volcano on his bike and beat the world record for downhill bike speed (might I add the guy broke his bike in half and also a hell of a lot of bones).

Once up the top we peered into the crater, kitted up and listened intently on how to slide down and not die.

We lined up and headed down one at a time. I went 2nd. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to watch other people go down and work up the courage to do it myself. Like I said, colliding with rocks and heights aren’t my thing. Especially not when they’re combined. 

I flew down.. or at least it felt like it. I got half way and fell off my board. After a short tumble and a mouth full of volcanic ash i thought to myself… Hey this isn’t so bad. I fell off AND I’m okay. I was off again. I eased up a little on the heels in the rock and managed to go even faster for the last part.. I was clocked going at an insanely quick speed of 23kph…. Okay so maybe it wasn’t that quick, but hell I’d done it, lived and enjoyed it.

Sean was next, and unfortunately the stuff on the bottom of his board (put there to make you go “extra quick”) fell off in the first 5 metres, so he came down really, really slow. Regardless he still had fun.

A few other people came and went before out of nowhere someone flew down and nearly ran into us. I legit had to jump out of the way. Who was it? None other than Tash, getting the fastest girl speed of the day at 67kph. Bloody show off.

We all headed back to the hostel tired but smiling. It had been a really fun day, and much better than Sean and I had anticipated. This was hugely in part to Heath and his information, and the insights he brought to the day.

Back at the hostel Tash had to do the “Lava Shot Challenge” for getting the fastest speed. The challenge consists of 3 chilli infused shots, and then another at the end. The whole idea is being able to do all 3 in less than 30 seconds and then not vomit for around a minute or so before proceeding to do the last shot. She succeeded. The shots were done at around 4pm.. her bus to Managua City to get her flight was at 5:30. Needless to say she was drunker than she expected to be for her flight.

That afternoon Tash left. It had been so much fun being with her for the past 5 or 6 weeks and we were sad to see her go. Bye Piña!!

Next stop for Sean and I are heading back to San Juan del Sur for a few days, then up to Gigante Bay and Popoyo for some surfing and time in the sun.